Table Of Contents:
- What is a Skilled Worker Visa
- Is it Possible for Skilled Worker Visa Holders to take an Additional Job in the UK
- Taking on Additional work
- Type of Additional Work allowed on Skilled Worker Visa
- Voluntary Work
- What is not allowed
- Doing more than 20 hours a week in Another Job
- Supplementary Work Conditions
- Summary
The UK Skilled Worker visa allows qualifying overseas nationals to come to the UK to work for a licenced sponsor in an eligible role. The employees must have a job offer from their sponsor at the required skill level, and they must be offered the minimum salary level. The primary job of the sponsored employees is to work for their sponsor.
However, it is often asked can a skilled worker visa holder can take an additional job in the UK? Well, sponsored workers are permitted to take up a second job in the UK if the required conditions are met.
What is a Skilled Worker Visa?
The Skilled Worker visa replaced the previous Tier 2 (General) visa and became the main work visa for foreign nationals. It allows UK-based organisations with a valid sponsor licence to sponsor non-UK nationals to work in the UK in eligible, skilled roles at an appropriate salary level. This is a point-based visa. The individuals applying for this visa must attain 70 points by meeting specific eligibility requirements, for example, skill and salary level, a qualifying job offer from an approved UK employer, and knowledge of the English language.
Spouses, civil partners, unmarried partners, and children of the skilled worker visa holders can apply to join them in the UK as their dependents.
The qualifying applicants are granted a Skilled Worker visa for up to five years, after which they can become eligible to apply for UK ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain).
Is it Possible for Skilled Worker Visa Holders to take an Additional Job in the UK?
Yes, skilled workers can take up additional work in the UK. There are specific rules governing whether a Skilled Worker visa holder can take on another job (including voluntary work) other than the one they have been sponsored for or earn supplementary income in addition to their primary role.
Skilled worker visa holders, in order to take on additional work, need to:
• Still be employed by their original sponsor
• Continue to undertake their main sponsored role and
• Meet certain conditions.
Postgraduate doctor or dentist whose permission extends up to four months beyond the work end date listed on their CoS may take supplementary locum work during that grace period of four months without being employed by their original sponsor. This concession applies only to postgraduate doctors or dentists who have completed an approved training programme.
In all other situations, however, to be eligible for supplementary work, the sponsored worker must continue working for their sponsor.
Taking on Additional work
You do not need to update your visa if you work overtime in the job you’re being sponsored for.
There’s no time limit set on how many hours of overtime you can do.
You can also work in another job or for your own business up to 20 hours a week, as long as you’re still doing the job you’re being sponsored for.
Type of Additional Work allowed on Skilled Worker Visa
Your work must be one of the following:
• A ‘higher-skilled’ job with an eligible occupation code
• Listed on the ISL (Immigration Salary List)
• In the same industry and at the same level as your primary job
You can also do additional work in a job listed as ‘medium-skilled’ but only if both of the following apply:
• You received your CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship) for your first Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa before 22 July 2025
• Since then, you have continually held one or more Skilled Worker visas
Voluntary Work
You can also do voluntary work for one of the following:
• A registered charity
• A voluntary organisation
• An associated fundraising body (an organisation that raises money for a charity or voluntary organisation)
• A statutory body (a government-appointed body, for example, Historic England)
An activity would only be considered to be volunteering if:
• The individual is not fulfilling a role that a staff member would normally undertake
• The individual has no obligation to attend at particular times or have set hours, and
• There is no payment for the work (except for reasonable expenses such as travel and meals expenses actually incurred).
What is not allowed?
If the supplementary work exceeds 20 hours per week, happens during CoS hours, or is in a job that does not meet criteria for the supplementary employment (i.e., not listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations or not at the same skill level), the worker cannot start it as supplementary employment.
Instead, the new employer must assign a new Certificate of Sponsorship, and the worker must apply for a change of employment online using the Skilled Worker form, paying the relevant application fee and HIS (Immigration Health Surcharge), and wait for approval from the Home Office before starting. The first employer’s leave remains valid until the application for a change of employment is approved.
If the worker wants to hold both jobs permanently, they typically maintain the primary sponsored role and take the second job as supplementary employment (if eligible) or make a change of employment application to the new sponsor.
Doing more than 20 hours a week in Another Job
The additional work is limited to 20 hours per week, outside the working hours of the sponsored role. The second work must be at the same skill level as the main sponsored job, in either the same SOC 2020 code or another occupation listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations (including ISL roles).
If a skilled worker visa holder will be working for more than 20 hours in another job, they will need to apply to update their visa in order to be sponsored to do both jobs. For this, they will need to:
• Get a new certificate of sponsorship from their new employer
• Include a letter with their change of employer application explaining that they want to change their existing permission to stay
Supplementary Work Conditions
- The second job can be undertaken with any employer, and the employer is not necessarily required to be a licensed sponsor.
- The skilled worker visa holders do not have to inform the Home Office that they are undertaking supplementary work.
- The sponsor is not obliged to undertake any record-keeping or reporting duties whilst the sponsored worker is completing supplementary work.
- The sponsored worker must, while taking up the supplementary job, remain employed (or hosted, if they hold a GAE visa) by their current sponsor.
Summary
Skilled Worker visa holders are sponsored to work in a specific role but can also, alongside their main role, undertake additional or supplementary work with the same or a different employer, as long as they are continuing to work in their main sponsored role and the supplementary work is:
• A type of work permitted to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker rules
• Outside their primary job’s normal working hours, and does not interfere with their main role
• Not beyond 20 hours per week
Before starting any supplementary work, as part of a right to work check, the skilled worker visa holder will need to check and discuss with the employer offering the supplementary work that it is a type of sponsorable work to ensure that they are permitted to undertake the work.
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